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(Church of) Scientology
History in Toronto
| «The Church of Scientology decided to infiltrate the offices
of the Ontario Medical Association
(OMA), and in 1985, after three years of pre-trial motions, a woman was convicted of stealing documents from the OMA at the Church's behest. «The search warrants were executed by officers of the O.P.P.
together with forensic accountants and accountants of the
Federal Department of Revenue. The six floors of the
Scientology premises were searched from 2:30 PM on March 3rd
until 11:00 AM on March 4th. 129 OPP officers attended,
with about 30 officers doing the actual searching. Some
850 boxes containing about 39,000 files and books, or
about 2,000,000 documents, statements and tapes were
removed.
«The judge rejected the contention that the church had shown remorse
for its role, and suggested that in reality there was a continuing
attempt to blame individuals within the church for illegal activities
that had been carried out at the direction of senior Scientology
officials. Meanwhile, outside the court, church officials distributed
pre-printed statements declaring the sentence "an outrage and
miscarriage of justice."
«"Scientology decided that Casey Hill was the enemy and it set
out to destroy him", the court said in its 129 page judgement.
"It levelled false charges against him. It prosecuted him on
those charges ... In summary, the evidence suggests that Scientology set upon a persistent course
of character assassination over a period of seven years with the intention of
destroying Casey Hill."
«In addition, books, devices, sales journals, and 57 named
publications were to be seized. Some 2 million documents were
seized in all. It later developed that the O.P.P. had
found that the Guardian's Office was instituting new procedures for
destruction of documents in the event of a police raid, and so the
timing of the raid had been accelerated somewhat.
«Anderson pled guilty to unlawful possession of
property of a value exceeding $200 knowing that such property had been
stolen. An agreed-upon statement of facts was presented by the Crown
counsel, detailing Ms. Anderson's membership in Scientology branches in
Denmark, England, and Toronto. In a further effort to mitigate the
sentence, defending counsel called Ms. Anderson to testify. Her
examination-in-chief occupies over 30 pages of transcript, and contains extensive references to the Church of Scientology, its
organization, practices, and the manner in which Ms. Anderson ultimately
received instructions to commit the offence charged.
«Constable Barbara Taylor of the Ontario Provincial
Police (OPP) later testified on May 19th, 1992 about her role. She had
been assigned to work undercover at the church in 1980, after documents
from the Ontario government had been found in an FBI search of the Los
Angeles Church of Scientology headquarters. [12]
By 1983 she had gained a position in the Guardian's Office of the
Toronto church. In this position, she had access to intelligence files,
including files on the OPP and the detective supervising Taylor's
assignment. She said that some of the information appeared to be from
job-performance evaluations.
«Former Scientology agent Kathy Smith testified about
safe houses referred to as "the garden", where secret information was
amassed and filed. She said she wrote a letter to Hubbard outlining all the illegal activity she
was involved in and received a note of congratulations back, signed Ron. [9]»
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Toronto Globe and Mail:
"Cult harassment, spying in Canada documented" by John Marshall
| «As reported in the accompanying instalment in a series of accounts of
the U.S. court proceedings, 35 Scientologists were alleged to have
participated in conspiracies to steal government documents and to
obstruct justice. Besides the nine sentenced to jail, 23 people were
named as unindicted co-conspirators. Three others have been indicted and
investigations are continuing in various parts of the United States by
state and federal agencies. Canadian activities have included the planting of spies with agencies
and individuals considered to be barriers to the progress of the wealthy
world-wide organization. It recently announced it had purchased
$3.5-million worth of property in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and
Montreal.
Philip McAiney, a Toronto minister of the cult founded by L. Ron
Hubbard, was quoted in The Globe and
Mail in 1974 as calling my series of articles at that time
"misrepresentation and distortion."» |
Toronto Globe and Mail:
"Secret Ontario documents found in U.S. cult's files" by John
Marshall
| «Mr. Hubbard's followers in the United States and
Canada do not try particularly to defend those convicted
in the Washington trial. Instead, following
long-standing directions from their leader, they attack
the attackers. They claim there have been 30 years of
civil rights violations against them by the U.S.
Government. And their private communications now
lodged in the District Courthouse paint a bizarre
continent-wide panorama of paranoia about individuals
and agencies plotting against them.
The fears, justified or not, led to the planting of
agents to get at files, and to electronic bugging,
theft, blackmail, poison-pen letters and to the
manufacturing of sex scandals against opponents.
According to the documentary evidence from their own
files, the U.S. Scientologists manufactured false
identification documents, framed one critic on a
criminal charge and circulated intimate details about
some of their own members' sexual escapades. At one
point, the court was told, they also kidnapped and
forcibly detained, handcuffed and gagged Michael Meisner,
their former national secretary, after they discovered
there was a warrant out for his arrest. Mr. Meisner
later became a prosecution witness.» |
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Scientology's Doctrine on Government and Control
| «"Toronto area MP Derek
Lee appears in a recruiting video used
by the Church of
Scientology to attract new members in the United
States.
[...] Some critics have denounced Scientology
as a brainwashing cult that harasses its opponents and
exploits the vulnerable for financial gain. But Lee says
he supports some of the group's programs and is
impressed by its
approach to rehabilitating drug addicts. [...]
Lee said he first met Scientologists through a
coalition of groups lobbying for more faith-based
programming on Canadian television. He occasionally
speaks to Scientology gatherings, including one earlier
this year in Toronto, as part of his advocacy for
greater
religious freedom. [...]
Lee says he hasn't got involved in the Church's
attempts to win charitable status from the Canada
Revenue Agency as a religious organization,
but he says he would probably help out if asked."
—
Canwest News Service,10-26-2005»
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The
Lee Report on Dianetics and Scientology - Recognition
| «To date, no instance is known
of favourable recognition of Scientology by any major
institution of Western society.
Hubbard has claimed recognition by "companies in South
Africa", but the claim has never been substantiated. No
medical association, church, voluntary organization or
other social institution has recognized the merits of
Scientology. On the other side, several political
jurisdictions have recognized Scientology as an
undesirable agency.
As reported earlier, the Food and Drug
Administration of the United States has successfully
prosecuted Scientology. The state of Victoria, Australia
has banned it. Medical associations and the Cancer
Society have warned against it.»
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The
Lee Report on Dianetics and Scientology - Evaluation
| «Objective experimental verification of Hubbard's
physiological and psychological doctrines is lacking.
To date, no regular scientific agency has established
the validity of his theories of prenatal perception and
engrams, or cellular memory, or Dianetic reverie, or the
effects of Scientology auditing routines.
Existing knowledge contradicts Hubbard's theory of
recording of perceptions during periods of
unconsciousness. A psychology dissertation in New York
University in 1953 tested the effect of Dianetic reverie
on increase in IQ and mathematical ability, which
Hubbard claimed. The usual controls and sampling
techniques were used, and the tests found no noticeable
influence as a result of the Dianetic auditing.
66
Hubbard's claims to have found
the only known cure for atomic radiation effects is not
only unsubstantiated, but, in view of its obvious
military value, hardly likely to have been left
uninvestigated by military authorities if it was of any
value whatever.
Hubbard's original thesis of the existence of engrams
in a Reactive Mind was tested by three psychologists in
1960.
67 A passage from a physics
text was read to a subject in an unconscious state
induced by sodium pentathol. During a period of almost
six months, Dianetic auditing was unable to recover the
passage. Hubbard maintains that all conversation heard
during periods of drugged unconsciousness recorded (as,
for example, during surgical operations).
68
The extracts from Hubbard's instructions to auditors,
as well as the Victoria demonstrations, make it clear
beyond doubt that a command form of hypnosis is involved
in Scientology auditing, whether intended or not.
The particularly sadistic note of endless
hours of repetition of extremely simple routines only
adds to the potential damage to the mental health of
those subjected to these routines. Preclears are
never permitted to end auditing sessions on their own
initiative.»
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Toronto Sun (May 1992): "Scientologists Taught Crime OK" by Bill
Dunphy
| «One of Scientology's former top spymasters testified she'd been trained to
believe criminal actions which protected the church weren't violations of
Scientology's moral code. Marion Evoy, a former Canadian head of Scientology's Guardian
Office, made the comment yesterday at the end of four days of
testimony in the trial of the Church of Scientology of Toronto
Inc. and five members on charges of criminal breach of trust.
The charges arise out of a Scientology spy network that in the
mid-1970s infiltrated the RCMP, the OPP, Metro Police and
Ontario's Attorney General's office.» |
Toronto Star (1983):
"Police storm Scientology headquarters seize records"
| «In a terse two-page statement, police said the
massive raid, which began at mid-afternoon, followed a
two-year secret investigation of the organization's
alleged involvement in: Tax fraud against the federal
and provincial governments;
Cheating of consumers by "misrepresentations" of
Scientology courses offered to the public; [...]» |
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